Adoption bid: MP Otto gives up on children

By Carol Kasujja & Chris Kiwawulo

Aruu County MP Odonga Otto has decided to abandon plans to take his two children; Nicole Olowang and Twiggy Anying, to the US where he intends to relocate as a citizen.

This follows a court petition by the children’s mother, Grace Santa Acan, who protested an order which the legislator had secured to adopt the children as their ‘uncle’.

Otto who is legally married to Juliet Oyulu wanted to relocate to the US with his five children. Otto had two children with Acan (Olowang and Anying) and three with Oyulu (Whitney Yumi Lamwaka, Favour Lamaro and Israel Mwaka).

Otto had included all his children as beneficiaries in his application for a Green Card, which when granted, makes him and the children American citizens.

In a response to his application, the US Embassy consular section in Nairobi, Kenya on February 21, 2013, wrote to Otto giving him and the five family members a deadline of September 30, 2013 to obtain a visa, failure of which means that their registration will have expired.

Otto said they were slated to travel to Nairobi with the children for interviews but Acan has frustrated everything. “She is running to media houses to escalate the controversy.”

Otto said Acan had consented to him taking the children to the US for a better life. He reiterated that applying for adoption was a mistake that can be corrected because there was a provision in the civil procedure rules to make corrections.

“She has now messed me up. But everything happens for a reason. If I knew she would behave that way, I would not have included her children’s names. For now, I have given up on them and I have given their passports to her. May be if they are 18, they will make their own decision,” he lamented.

Acan on Tuesday confirmed that Otto had handed over Olowang and Anying’s passports during a family meeting recently but she denied ever consenting to taking the children to the US. “I have never signed any documents allowing my children to be adopted and taken to the US. He forged my signature.”

Otto said his fate now lies in the hands of the American consular office, which will either choose to grant or deny him, his wife (Oyulu) and his other three children visas.

Acan petitioned Makindye court after Otto had applied to adopt his two children, seeking to quash the order and the case is coming up for hearing on May 20.

 The case comes at a time when Police has also joined investigations into the MP’s alleged forgery of adoption documents for his two children.